How far will you go for a pair of ten pound Next cufflinks

Hello all, a merry Christmas, Happy New Year, happy Hanukkah etc etc.

So yes it is an obscenely long time since I last wrote a blog entry.

To be honest I haven`t been playing anywhere near as much poker as I had been previously, and ashamed though I am to admit, I never jumped up the table rates as much either. This is mainly because I have enforced the poker equivalent of abstenence on myself for the past few weeks.

No one likes a whiner, but I am going to do it anyway. I have been hit by the worst run of bad luck in games I have had since I have been playing. About a month before Christmas I was around the $500 mark, playing some good S n G games and cashing in most. Then I started noticing I was going out at the bubble. Playing against people who had called raises with 6,4 offsuit and then finding a straight on the river. Much swearing was used. Laptops were thrown. In the words of The Hulk "you won`t like me when I am angry" - mainly because I go in a strop in the corner of the room and don`t talk to anyone. lol.

Poker theory says not to worry about these flukes because in the end its those type of people who pay you out in the long run. Maybe so, but for the following three weeks I found this happening every game. Miracle cards on the flop. I was beginning to be knocked out of games in 5th place, then 6th. God forbid at one point 9th - a position I haven`t been knocked out in in years.

It hit its lowest point between Xmas and new year. I had decided to drop out of S n G tournies for a bit and have a go at cash tables, just to control my run a little more. I played exceptionally well (or so I thought anyway) but had very little profit to show for it. Finally a big hand came. On the flop I had a full house. One guy, very aggressive player, stuck with me. I played him in a way that suggested I was chasing a flush, and he kept betting into me. I had the nuts and so, managed, on the turn, to get all my money in. He flipped over his cards. He has highest two pair. My middle full house was well in the lead. All the money would be mine. Unless of course the only remaining relevant 9 in the pack came out. A 1 in 52 chance. Yeah you can guess the rest. By that night I think I had invented swear words!

By the end of that run I had lost $100 of my account, the most I had ever dropped by. However that game did seem to be the turning point. From there I seem to have resumed the same flow I was on before, and gradually building my pot back up. So I am still playing the $5 and probably will until I can get back to the $500 mark. Ironically, with that run of bad luck, if I had changed up tables I dread to think what I would have lost.

Christmas also featured my second live game. This wasn`t in a pub, or high class casino, but at a friends house - the first home game I had ever done. Now to be fair this is in a house in Bedford where the guy clearly has too much money. A ten player game started in a kitchen that had features in Home and Gardens, and finished in a wood lined smoking room, where the losing players had the chance to enjoy a losing sauna.

This is a yearly gathering. A blokes day basically. A morning starting off with clay pigeon shooting (something I have never done before and after all the bruises may never do again) being trained by a bloke who trains members of the navy. So you can guess who won that (and the accompanying prize of a cartridge pen knife). Then on to the poker.

The prize on offer was a pair of cufflinks in the shape of playing cards. As you can understand this was a classy prize. I took the same game play I use on the net into the game.

The first two hours I played one hand. At one point I was threatened with violence for taking it too seriously. (Mental note - don`t handle cards properly when playing with amateurs, they suddenly think you know what you are doing). I was lowest in chips for the whole of the time we were playing. And my word there were odd plays (Second mental note - cufflinks aren`t worth that much - that means peoples money is not on the line. Bluffing does not work).

The guy in the lead all the way through was the guy who was playing the 9, 6 offsuits. I even asked him if he has played me online a month previously. lol. But somehow I got to past midnight and we were down to five and in the smoking room. Then all of a suddent the poker gods decided they would give me cards with actual pictures on them for a change, and a lot of them. I had a phenominal run of cards AQ followed by AA followed by AK. I went in with all my chips almost every hand, and people were folding to me. Holy crap, the theory actually seems to be working.

I got down to the last two and heads up play. Except it was now 3 a.m. We had been playing for 6 hours. I like cufflinks, but not that much. I started pushing with any old hand - either trying to bluff him off his hand, or just leaving it to the Gods. At one point I had a 10 to 1 chiplead over him. At this point the Gods clearly decided I was taking the piss and swapped the luck around. I pushed all in with Ace 6, to go up against Ace 10 suited spades. Three more spades came up and I was out. They were in my grasp...... mere inches from my cuffs (which had buttons so may have been an issue), but they were not to be. I shall chase them next year!

However its true what they say. I may have lost, and no money was on offer, but that was the most enjoyable evening of poker I have ever had. People were laughing, way too much drink was had, people were helping with each others hands, half naked men leaving saunas were wandering around, the poker seemed distant on the list. Thats how it should be played. Even at small stakes I had been taking it too seriously online. Chasing losses. Now I am not, I am back to playing how I did six months ago. I am also back to winning again.

Also, as I left that evening, driving bleary eyed back home at 4 in the morning, one of the guys turned around and said. "You were, by far, the best player here." Ah the warm glow of semi recognition. Phil Helmuth eat your heart out.

Pot total: $427.98